Dave and co. kept us good and busy over the festive period. We didn’t even get much time to think of what we were missing at home and the hot weather put it further from our minds!
On Christmas Eve, 7 of us went tramping in Waitakere, where we walked along the tracks to a dam and back in about 3½ hours, having a bite of lunch along the way. On Christmas Day Sean, Paul and I went surfing at Murewai Beach for a couple of hours. It did start to feel a bit more like home when we were sitting on the water in the middle of a solid downpour of rain! One way to clear the beach in seconds! On Boxing Day (that’s what they call it here so I’m allowed call it that at last!) a group of us went mountain biking in Woodhill. This time I got away with going a little slower though due to having the convenient excuse of having a child along with us! I’m getting fond of mountain biking now… The day after that we went surfing at Murewai again with Fuzzy, a little less rain that time though!
We took a quick trip down to Taupo also (to do with van hunting – I’ll explain later) and went sailing on the lake. Of course, the wind seemed to die once we were out on the lake again! I’m thinking I might be a bit unlucky with this sailing thing… Sean got to have a spin on Jason’s new jet ski though. Jason has been racing them for years and this is the most powerful one he’s ever ridden, so given that he can hardly hold onto it, I figured I wouldn’t have much of a chance!
On Sunday 30th we joined Dave, Nic, Paul and Stacey for our first river in New Zealand (at last!). We paddled the grade 3 section of the Wairoa River twice before heading back to Auckland. There, we packed up and all went up to Matapouri for New Years in Dave’s parents’ motor home. As it was so late when we left Auckland, we only drove as far as Whangarei that night. En route, Nic and I got the pleasure of cooking dinner… Apparently it’s legal here, but I advise you all to never even attempt to fry sausages and steak in the back of a moving motor home, especially on the windy roads of New Zealand!
Safely in Matapouri, we went surfing again at Sandy Beach on New Years Eve and then rang in the New Year on the beach watching fireworks!
On New Years Day we decided to try a little experiment towing kayaks behind the prototype jet boat! Sean and Paul got to be the crash test dummies but I stuck to being photographer! Dave and Steve’s son, Brad, also tried it on a surfboard!
The next day Steve brought us to Poor Knights Island in his bigger boat and we went snorkelling. It’s supposed to be one of the best diving destinations. This time I only swam away from jellyfish at speed! I also got to swim right up to a blue penguin – it was only about a foot long and sooo cute! That evening Sean tried out Steve’s surf-ski at Sandy Beach before we headed back to Auckland – Dave and Nic had to go back to work!
